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Collaboration Overview
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Collaboration & change
With collaboration change becomes easier & safer …
- experiences (good, bad...) are validated by others
- problems can be solved by drawing on the knowledge, experience and networks immediately available
- shared achievement leads to shared celebrations of success
- everyone can be a contributor and a beneficiary (the hallmarks of belonging)
Collaboration and culture
If the changed practices are adopted as 'normal' practices they become part of the culture and need less support.
Cultural shifts to new forms of practice can only be achieved together!
Collaboration in professional learning is likely to lead to
- more sustained and consistent practices , and thus
- supports the development and achievement of (professional) standards
Collaboration and success
Collaboration in professional learning is based on
- clarifying shared purposes and related practices,
- improving access to resources (including ICT)
- and using shared experiences to develop and refine teaching and learning practices
Thus (in relation to ICT) collaboration increases
- the working knowledge available to the practitioner
- and the likelihood of the practices being successful
All of which increases the cost effectiveness of any use of ICT involved
Collaboration and ICT
What is the direct relationship between collaboration & ICT? And under what conditions?
Answers from inschool observations
- A school culture that includes high levels of collaboration is likely to be much more successful in the use of ICT.
- The availability of ICT appears to have little impact on the level of collaboration per se
Deployment of new practices
The close link between action and learning means that, in a collaborative culture, learning and action are both supported by members of the culture. Thus
- the learning becomes part of the culture and is readily available to its members.
- learning that is matched to shared purposes is readily translated in to new or improved shared practices.
Thus collaboration enhances the rapid and extended deployment of the improved or new practices into the life and work of the group
Collaboration beyond professional learning
Collaboration enhances other aspects of the school beyond professional learning through
- better informed governance
- informed development of a better matching infrastructure
- astute deployment and application of the new and improved practices, leading to...
- improved core practices and supporting activities
...
Collaboration and sustainability
The way to achieve sustainability of new or improved practices is to ensure that they become part of the culture.
This provides a useful definition of implementation: ‘Something has been implemented when it has become part of the culture' - IW.
Collaboration adds value
With high levels of collaboration and attention to practices there is ongoing value adding from the professional experiences (action learning) in the field
The existence of a 'community of practice' means that
- important knowledge and experience are well situated to support professional learning, that is, close to practices & learners.
- significantly increase the value of the professional learning since it becomes a resource for others
Collaboration decreases costs since (in professional learning)
- it is more in line with the needs of participants
- there is less failure - more learning transferred into practice
- gives value to the provider who learns from the experience of being a co-learner, tutor, mentor…
- less disruption - opportunities can be arranged as required between players: more ‘just in time’ and ‘just in place’
- less waste - provision is in response to actual needs
- less rework - successful transfer of learning into actual practices and experience reduces the need to re-learn
- less management is required - collaboration includes more natural organization by arrangement between learner and helper
Collaboration in professional learning - Summary
Collaboration makes professional learning
- more efficient and effective
- more sustainable
- closer to JIT (time) delivery
- closer to JIP (place) delivery, thus
- faster with fewer hold-ups in the learning process, since the required knowledge, experience,
- products are more readily available from co-learners, on-site tutors, mentors...
And there is greater likelihood of improved follow up at all stages of the learning process
The future – Communities of Practice
One of the most comprehensive and well considered notions of collaboration
is that of communities of practice. That is, a group of colleagues who share knowledge, a community, a shared practice
which they strive to enhance (for themselves, each other and those they serve) by
learning through
- enabling participation of the members of the community of practice, and
by,
- negotiating meaning
This is valid for most aspects of human endeavour. In relation to education
this has the potential to lead to an understanding of pedagogy
as negotiation of meaning
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